What is a CDN? How Content Delivery Networks Work

Are you thinking of investing in a video streaming service for your content but want to know a little more about the tech involved? You’ve come to the right place. Content delivery networks are an important part of Magine Pro’s delivery architecture and in this post we’ll explain how they work and why they’re essential to an OTT service.

First and foremost, what is a CDN?

A content delivery network (CDN) is a system of servers designed to efficiently deliver content, such as music, images or video, to requesting clients anywhere in the world. To do this effectively, each server houses a copy of the original content, which it can then distribute to users within range. A large-scale CDN will have servers strategically positioned around the globe, enabling people thousands of miles away to access the same great content as quickly as local communities that live close to the original source (for instance a local TV broadcaster).

CDN’s help companies like us to scale up and deliver great content to underserved communities around the world. They also help to ensure a seamless user experience, as the content doesn’t have to travel as far to reach the viewer, so they’re guaranteed quick access, great performance, and minimal latency; all pretty important for us here at Magine Pro.

How do CDN’s work?

We send a continuous stream of video file pieces from our systems to requesting user devices, be it a phone, tablet or laptop, ensuring our users and our partner’s users can watch and enjoy content anytime, anywhere.

Before CDN providers, companies like Magine Pro would operate with only one server (with several big hard drives) and deliver video data over the internet to requesting user devices. However, one computer can only perform so well. Adding more servers to accommodate more users though is inefficient and costly and would require additional internet bandwidth. Buying more computers isn’t the solution. It doesn’t scale well nor does it perform well.

Enter the CDN provider. A content delivery network provider has lots of secure servers scattered across the country (or several countries for that matter) and allow their clients to put copies of their video data (or any kind of data) onto them. For Magine Pro this means that when a user starts watching a video stream, the data is sent from one of these servers instead of our own. Consequently, we’re able to scale up the number of users on our services and our partner’s, without having to worry about scaling out our own central storage servers. And as the CDN is in close proximity to the user, they get a seamless streaming experience.

CDN’s are integral to any OTT service looking to scale and deliver content seamlessly to audiences around the world. If you keen to find out more about CDN’s and how they enable Magine Pro to deliver great content globally, check out our case studies or get in touch!